Humboldt County’s cannabis industry, along with its large area and small population, make it very susceptible to human trafficking offenses, a professional on the subject working for the county announced Tuesday.

Isabella Wotherspoon, who works for the county Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and also serves as the Wiyot Tribe’s domestic violence advocate, delivered the presentation to the board at its Tuesday meeting.

Rural communities, like parts of Humboldt County, are at higher risk of trafficking because of increased poverty rates, smaller population sizes and fluctuating workforces, Wotherspoon said. The county has a population of about 136,000 with a poverty rate that hovers around 20 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“A unique consideration in our county is the cannabis industry legalization in 2017,” she said. “Even before that. And it will continue because of the fluctuating workforce. We have seasonal workers that come and go. They operate in large geographic areas, and these communities are isolated.”

Many cannabis grows have historically been criminal enterprises, she said. Long work hours, varying compensation rates and the industry’s remote locations in the county’s more rural spots all contribute to the frequency of trafficking.

“Not to say every grow is their own brothel,” she said, “but it has been known to occur… as with any unregulated, unchecked black market, as the cannabis industry (had) been until 2017.”

The county has been growing more aware of the fact that human trafficking is occurring, said 2nd District Supervisor Estelle Fennell.

“The bottom line is, human trafficking is slavery,” Fennell said. “We really need to remember that and do everything we can to address what we know and find out what we don’t about this issue.”

Katrina Taylor, a local survivor of trafficking, said it took her time to realize she had been trafficked, and identify as such.

“We need to start addressing the demand,” Taylor said. Publicizing people arrested for trafficking, or making an example of the buyers, will deter the demand, she said.

Kate Estikta, a local social worker, said she has sat with county locals who were manipulated and sold by their partners into sex trafficking.

“This is more normal than we realize,” Estikta said.

With labor trafficking, people, including children, are coerced to work in harsh conditions for reasons like debt bondage or forced labor. Sex trafficking involves commercial sex acts brought on by force, fraud or coercion. Anything involving a minor constitutes sex trafficking.

The terms people use to characterize sex traffickers are important, Wotherspoon said. The word “pimp” has attracted a level of cultural coolness while a “sex trafficker” is more to the point of the crime, she said. “Exploited victims” are also distinct from “prostitutes,” she said, because the second term isn’t necessarily involuntary.

“These terms aren’t related to gender,” Wotherspoon said. “Men and boys, women and girls are all victims of this.”

Salary raises approved

The board approved a series of pay raises that will raise supervisors’ salaries by about $10,000 to roughly $97,000.

New 5th District Supervisor Steve Madrone, sworn in Monday, was the lone dissenting vote, although 1st District Supervisor Rex Bohn reiterated his Monday commitment to rejecting the raise.

The supervisors present — 4th District Supervisor Virginia Bass didn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting — agreed their work is time-consuming and difficult. Fennell said her many miles of driving are never reimbursed.

Madrone announced he didn’t want the raise, telling the Times-Standard later that he may donate the additional salary he makes.

Bohn has already signed a form with the county Human Resources department indicating he will reject the raise, he told the Times-Standard.

“But I voted to approve because the supervisors deserve every penny of it,” he said. “I’m giving the opportunity to them to take it.”

Shomik Mukherjee covers Humboldt County government, environment and cannabis news for the Times-Standard. He previously reported in Santa Barbara, and he's pleasantly surprised at the two regions' similarity. Follow Mukherjee on Twitter at @ShomikMukherjee; add him at facebook.com/shomikTS. He can be reached at 707-441-0504.